
Class r 1 5 _5 

Book- V 40 6 . 






a u id 



I V E MAP; 



INCLUDING THE 



ENTIRE ROUTE 



Ti'ITII ALL ITS 



£l^6>6- 



PENNSYLVANIA BAXLBOAB 



WINDINGS, OBJECTS OP INTEREST, AND INFORMATION USEFUL 
TO THE TRAVELLER, 







PHILADELPHIA: 

T. E. AND P. a. COLLINS, PRINTERS, 

1855. 






DIRECTORS 



PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD FOR 1855-56, 



By the Stockholders. 

J. Edgar Thomson, John Yarrow, 

C. E. Spangler, Wm. K. Thompson, 

George W. Carpenter, John Farnum, 

Washington Butcher, William Neal. 

By the City of Philadelphia. 
George Howell. 

By the 'Commissioners of Alleghany County. 
William Robinson, Jr., Thomas Scott. 

By the Board. 
William B. Foster, Jr. 

President J. Edgar Thomson. 

Vice-President Wm. B. Foster, Jr. 

Treasurer THOMAS T. FlRTH. 

Secretary Edmund Smith. 

General Superintendent . . . . H. J. Lombaert. 

Chief Engineer Herman Haupt. 

Solicitor in Philadelphia . . . Job R. Tyson. 

Solicitor in Pittsburg . . . ■ . . William A. Stokes. 



GUIDE 



PENNSYLVANIA BAILBOAE 



The city of Philadelphia may be regarded as the eastern terminus of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, though the road itself terminates at Harrisburg. 
The importance of the road is at once felt, when it is understood that it is 
the only direct highway between the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. 

A brief statement of the extent and resources of Philadelphia will suffice 
to show that she is second to no city in the country in business importance. 

In the first place, the city of Philadelphia contains, as shown by the 
last census, a greater number of dwellings than any other city in the Union, 
Exceeding New York by twenty-three thousand six hundred and one dwell- 
ings. No inconsiderable town in itself. 

In the next place, it is the metropolis of a commonwealth increasing in 
wealth and population at a greater ratio than any of the old thirteen States. 
In the last apportionment for the House of Representatives at Washington, 
the State of Pennsylvania gained a member of. Congress and the State of 
New York lost one. 

Philadelphia sends out her railroads and canals in every direction. On 
the north and west she reaches within easy distance her own coal fields; 
deposits which are inexhaustible, and which contain the only anthracite 
coal yet discovered in America, and from which all American markets are 
supplied. Philadelphia is the chief seat of this trade; a circumstance to 
which she owes the inestimable advantage of cheap fuel, which has been 
an efficient cause of her vast manufacturing superiority. The wharves of 
the Reading Railroad at Philadelphia, one of the principal places for the 
shipment of coal, are a curiosity in themselves, well worthy the attention 
of a stranger. 

In manufactures, Philadelphia is far before any other city in America. 
Every variety of article, large or small, civil or military, intended for use 
or ornament, is produced here. She is the centre of trade for the manu- 



facture of gas-fittings, her large establishments in this department being 
the wonder of all who see them. Nowhere else are wrought-iron tubes 
for conveying gas made on the same scale. The manufacturers of leaden 
pipe for the whole country reside here. In the production of paper-hang- 
ings and umbrellas it has long been conceded that no other city approaches 
her. One manufactory for paper-hangings extends an entire square in 
length. On the corner of Fifth and Cherry Streets, stands an immense 
and symmetrical structure, a monument to the taste, enterprise, and gi*eat 
business energy of its proprietors, in which several hundred hands are con- 
stantly employed in the production of the most beautiful fabrics, military 
goods, coach trimmings, laces, ribbons, embroideries, &c. &c. Every ima- 
ginable article composed of iron is manufactured in this city. The loco- 
motives of Philadelphia are known on every railroad in the United States, 
and on many in Europe; and the car-wheels produced here are not less 
esteemed. It is said of one of our locomotive establishments, that it has 
the largest and hest arranged workshops in this country, and when fully 
occupied employs over 1400 hands, and it has turned out three complete 
locomotives in one week. Its capacity is fully equal to 150 per year. 
The steam-engine manufactories of this city for stationary engines, and 
for steamships, are known over the world. The engines for the steam- 
frigate Mississippi, among the few really successful ones in the service 
of the United States, was made at a well-known establishment in Phila- 
delphia. The manufacture of superior stoves is also carried on to a very 
large extent. 

In the lesser articles made from iron, such as axes, saws, pitchforks, 
cutlery, surgical instruments, nails, screws, hinges, she is without a rival. 

Paper of all kinds, woollen goods, prints, calicoes, and especially carpets, 
and boots and shoes, are staple productions ; and it is affirmed that there 
are more fine shoes and boots made in Philadelphia annually than in all 
New England. Carriage-building and harness-making are also carried on 
very extensively ; in both these departments, Philadelphians carried off the 
prize at the London exhibition. 

The Delaware bounds Philadelphia on the east, while the Schuylkill 
winds its way through the heart of the city. By the former, Philadelphia 
is put in communication with the ocean ; by both, in addition to her rail- 
roads, she finds access to the rich mineral and agricultural products of the 
interior of Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, and of the far West. 
The coasting trade of this city is the largest of any of the American cities. 
Of the amount of her foreign commerce no true notion can be formed from 
the business transactions at Tier own custom-house. The facilities of trans- 
portation from New York are such as to induce Philadelphia merchants to 
avail themselves of the proximity to the ocean of that port for the intro- 
duction of their goods ; immense quantities of which are transported at 



once, with the original case unopened, except so far as the revenue officers 
require them to be opened, from the ship in New York to the counting- 
house of their owners in Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia has for years been considered the great distributing mart of 
the United States, and it is not too much to say that the north side of 
Market Street exhibits some of the most magnificent stores that have ever 
been erected. 

Philadelphia is the medical capital of the country. She has not less than 
five first class medical colleges of the old school ; while the homoeopathic, 
the water cure party, and the vegetarians have all flourishing schools. The 
medical literature of the country centres here. While her law, miscella- 
neous, and school-book publishing houses are among the largest in the 
United States. 

If the traveller is not bent on business, but is in pursuit of elegant 
recreation, let him stop in Philadelphia, and he will be amply rewarded. 
The Academy of Natural Sciences, on Broad Street, next to the La Pierre 
House, is an institution unapproached by any other in America. The second, 
if not the first, ornithological collection in the world is there. It contains 
the late Dr. Morton's invaluable collection of skulls, certainly the most 
extensive collection in the world, besides a valuable scientific library, and 
numerous rare specimens in zoology and mineralogy. The Wagner Insti- 
tute, lately incorporated, contains wagon loads of collections for the study 
of mineralogy, geology, and botany. On Fifth near Chestnut Street stands 
the Philadelphia Library, founded by Dr. Franklin, one of the oldest and 
most extensive libraries in the country. It contains nearly 65,000 volumes. 
Independence Hall, in Chestnut above Fifth Street, where the Declaration 
of Independence was signed, adorned with the original and remarkably 
exact portraits, taken during their lives, of most of the distinguished cha- 
racters, American or foreign, who took part in the events of our revolu- 
tionary period, offers attractions to the patriot and the student of history., 
such as no other place can present. 

The Pennsylvania Hospital, it might almost be called world-renowned, 
and the Eastern Penitentiary, also known throughout the best portion of 
the world, draw hither many visitors. The Fair mount Water Works and 
Laurel Hill, and the beautiful summer excursion on the Schuylkill, between 
the two, have enchanted many, strangers. 

On Chestnut Street below Broad Street, stands the beautiful building 
appropriated to the United States Mint, where the curious and nice opera- 
tion of coining may almost always be seen. And further down Chestnut 
Street, above Tenth, the Academy of Fine Arts offers to the visitor at all 
times a delightful entertainment. Many of the largest productions of the 
well-known Benjamin West are there, and there only, to be seen ; among 
them the famous picture of Death on the Pale Horse. 



6 

The Girard College, principally composed of marble, is the grandest 
building in America, and the most richly endowed charitable institution, by 
a single individual, in the world. The Custom-house, the Farmers and 
Mechanics' Bank, the Bank of North America, the Girard Bank, and the 
Exchange are public buildings which would attract notice in any part of 
the world. 

The eccentric John Randolph, of Roanoke, when in Europe, wrote to his 
friends in America that nothing impressed him so much as the grandeur 
of the European architecture. "It seems," said he, "as though I had 
never seen anything in America but huts — unless it were the Capitol at 
Washington and the Bank of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia." 

The new gas works of the city, on the Schuylkill, below Gray's Ferry, 
are on a scale never before attempted in this country, if in any other. 
Those curious in such matters could not do better than pay them a visit. 

The neighborhood of Philadelphia produces in abundance a delicate and 
luxuriant grass, of which cattle are very fond, to which is ascribed the su- 
periority of the milk, butter, and cream used here — a superiority so marked 
that the most unobservant traveller never fails to notice it. In like man- 
ner the beef of the Philadelphia market is always preferred to any other. 
The hotels are not, as a general thing, on the gigantic scale of the New 
York houses. They are, however, quite as comfortable, and always offer 
to the stranger a table spread with delicacies from a market proverbial for 
its excellence. 

But the steam-whistle gives token that the iron-horse is ready for a start, 
and we must hurry away; but, before we part, we can assure the traveller 
that no matter how often he repeats his visit to Philadelphia, we can con- 
tinually exhibit to him new scenes and matters of interest. Her charitable 
institutions, for instance, of which we have made no mention in the fore- 
going sketch, except the Girard College, embrace the greatest variety of ob- 
jects, are endowed with exceeding liberality, and are conducted with a 
decree of intelligent faithfulness and zeal which make them models. Her 
public schools also are of the first order. 

The accompanying map contains the red line of the road from Philadel- 
phia to Pittsburg, with the towns and stations, streams and mountains, ac- 
curately located. At Harrisburg, it will be readily perceived that, in order 
to prevent the map from being too wide, the Susquehanna River was cut in 
two, where it was pursuing too much of a northerly course, and the western 
section commenced at the bottom of the map. The windings of the road, 
in order to climb the Alleghany Mountains, may be distinctly seen. 

The line of road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg has three owners. First, 
The state of Pennsylvania owns that part extending from the city to Dil- 
lersville, one mile above Lancaster, consisting of a double track, in length 
69 miles. At Dillersville, the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy and 



Lancaster Railroad commences, and continues from thence to Harrisburg, 
a distance of 36 miles. At Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Railroad com- 
mences, and completes the line from thence to Pittsburg, a distance of 248 
miles. 

The cars are drawn from the depot by horse or mule power, out Market 
Street, and across the Schuylkill Permanent Bridge, at the west end of which 
they take the locomotive. The river Schuylkill was, until lately, the western 
boundary of the city, as laid out by its founder, William Penn. The act 
of consolidation of 1854 extends the boundary westwardly to Cobb's Creek, 
a distance of 3| miles. The waters of this beautiful river rise in the 
mountains of Schuylkill County, which contain the treasures of anthracite 
coal, peculiar to this State, millions of tons of which annually find their 
way to tide water on its bosom, and upon the Reading Railroad along its 
banks, whence it is carried to other cities and towns, in several States of 
the Union. 

After taking steam we pass up the Schuylkill in full view of the light 
and graceful Wire Bridge on the right, the Fairmount Water Works, 
and the beautiful fall of water over the Dam, as well as the placid sheet which 
it makes as far as the eye can reach. The new bridge at Girard Avenue may 
also be seen, and the Girard College, with snowy whiteness and its mag- 
nificent marble columns and marble roof, overlooking the city and surround- 
ing country for miles. The State locomotive engine house is immediately 
on the road to the right, a few hundred yards from the place of starting. 
Thence passing through a deep cut we curve round and pursue nearly a 
westerly course, leaving the city and its busy multitudes behind. In round- 
ing the curve to the left we may observe the West Philadelphia Water 
Works (now belonging to the city), being a very high iron column cylinder., 
encircled by a neat and tasty iron stairway, winding around it from its base 
to its summit. At a distance of 3 miles from the depot we pass Heston- 
ville on our left, then Liberty ville, and Athensville, and arrive at 
White Hall, 10 miles from the city. Just before arriving at this station, 
we may observe, to the left, a large building with an extensive lawn, and a 
handsome wood between it and the railroad. This is the Haverford Col- 
lege, belonging to an association of Friends, and conducted by them, where 
a classical education may be obtained by the youth of that denomination, 
but which is not confined exclusively to them. This college is in Delaware 
County. It was at Chester, on the Delaware River, in this county, where 
William Penn landed in November, 1682, with his cargo of English 
Quakers, in the ship Welcome. There were Pemberton, Moore, Yardley, 
Wain, Lloyd, Pusey, Chapman, Wood, Hollingsworth, Sharpless, Pthoades, 
Hall, Gibbons, Bonsall, Sellers, and Claypoole, whose ancestor, Cromwell, 
not many years before, ruled the destinies of the British empire. The 
descendants of those men have become numerous in Philadelphia, Chester 3 



and Delaware counties. The birthplace of the celebrated Benjamin West 
is a few miles south of the Haverford school — his ancestors accompanied 
Penn on his second visit to Pennsylvania, and were also Quakers. Benja- 
min was reared in the faith and profession of his ancestors — a profession 
from which he never swerved when his genius commanded the flattery of 
courts, and honor from kings and princes. It is recorded of him, by Gait, 
that at the age of seven he made a drawing, in red and black ink, of an 
infant niece, of whose cradle he had the charge, and whose sweet smile in 
her sleep excited his imitative powers, though he had never seen a picture 
or engraving. With this precocious sign of inherent talent the boy's 
mother was charmed, and her admiration and encouragement confirmed his 
taste. At school, even before he had learned to write, pen and ink became 
his cherished favorites; and birds, flowers, and animals adorned his juvenile 
portfolio. It is a tradition of the family that the father, having sent Ben- 
jamin out to plough, missed him from his work, and found him under a 
cokeberry bush, where he had sketched the portraits of a whole family so 
strikingly that they were instantly recognized. Another anecdote is re- 
lated of him — that one day at Rome (where he had gone to complete his 
studies), while his master had stepped out a moment, West slyly painted 
a fly on the work on which his master was engaged. The master came in, 
resumed his work, and made several attempts to scare away the fly. At 
last he exclaimed : u Ah ! it is that American." We next pass the stations 
of Villa Nova (a Roman Catholic college), Morgan's Corner, and the 
Eagle, and arrive at the Paoli, 20 miles on our journey. The train fre- 
quently stops here for refreshments. Near this place 150 Americans, under 
General Wayne, were killed and wounded on the night of the 20th of 
September, 1777, by a detachment of English under General Gray. This 
action is frequently called the Paoli massacre. General Wayne was sur- 
prised in the night by a superior force, and no quarter shown. " On the 
20th of September, 1817, being the 40th anniversary of the massacre, a 
monument was erected over the remains of those gallant men by the Re- 
publican Artillerists of Chester County, aided by the contributions of their 
fellow-citizens. It is composed of white marble, and is a pedestal sur- 
mounted by a pyramid. Upon the four sides of the body of the pedestal 
are appropriate inscriptions." The country through which we have passed 
is thickly dotted with neat farm-houses and barns, and all sorts of comfort- 
able out-houses for pigs, and poultry, sheep, cattle, and horses. The large 
fields of grain and grass which greet our eyes in the summer season, the 
herds of cattle, and flocks of sheep, everywhere to be seen, indicate great 
agricultural thrift in the inhabitants of Delaware, Montgomery, and Ches- 
ter counties, through which we have been passing. The small whitewashed 
stone houses which we may observe at a short distance from the dwellings, 
and generally situated under the outspreading branches of some ancient 



9 

oak or willow, with a crystal brook stealing away through the luxuriant 
grass, are spring-houses. We may observe the patient cows standing 
around, with their white udders swollen with milk, waiting to yield it to 
the milk-maid's pail, from which it is poured into earthen or tin pans, and 
those are placed in the clear cool water of those houses where the rich 
cream is formed for the butter. From these houses is taken the far-famed 
Philadelphia butter, superior to that, it is said, of any city in the world. 
The secret of its superiority lies in the green grass peculiar to this rolling 
country, and the cool springs of water that rise from its hills. ~No prairie land, 
how rich soever it may be, can ever produce butter equal to that made in 
the rolling counties around the city of Philadelphia. Soon after passing the 
Paoli, we commence descending the valley hill, and now breaks upon the 
view of the passengers one of the most picturesque scenes that can be found 
on any road in the Union. This is the celebrated Chester County limestone 
valley. This valley extends easterly and westerly some 20 miles in length, 
and averages 2 miles in width. It is skirted on both sides with high hills 
covered with timber, from which issue innumerable springs of pure water, 
converted into perpetual fountains in the valley, and affording a never-fail- 
ing supply forman and beast, at the house and barn. This valley is noted 
for its fertility and beautiful farms. As the cars descend the hill, on an 
easy grade, the passenger may take in at one view many miles of this mag- 
nificent panorama, interspersed with comfortable and neat farm-houses, 
spacious barns, and other necessary buildings. Hundreds of fields of waving 
grain, the deep green corn, and luxuriant timothy and clover, pass in re- 
view before him. Here, the farmers may be seen driving their " teams 
a-field," and there, cattle, horses, and sheep, feeding in the pasture, or re- 
clining under the trees. This valley supplies the finest beef for the Phila- 
delphia and New York markets. The cattle are brought when poor from 
the regions of the north and west, and fattened here in the rich pastures of 
Pennsylvania. The beef of Philadelphia, like the butter, is nowhere else 
to be found. After running along the southern side of the valley for seve- 
ral miles, and passing the Steamboat, Oakland, and the intersection of 
the Valley Railroad leading to Norristown, we arrive at Downingtown, a 
distance of 38 miles from the city. This is a quiet little rural village, to the 
right, which has grown up on the Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, which 
passes through it. The north branch of the Brandywine Creek, over which 
the cars have just passed, also flows through it. This stream commemo- 
rates the battle of Brandywine, which took place in 1777, between the 
English, under General Cornwallis, and the Americans, under General 
Washington, at Chad's Ford, some 15 miles below this place. Its pure 
waters, that flowed between the contending armies, were dyed by the blood 
of the combatants, and bore witness to their deadly struggles. And if the 
palm of victory be awarded to the side that made the most widows and 



10 

orphans on that bloody day, as is usually the case, we must admit that the 
English won the prize. The fiercest part of the battle took place around 
the Birmingham Friends' meeting-house, a few miles farther up the stream. 
The combat raged furiously at this place, and many lives were lost. Mis- 
siles of war, and other evidences of the battle, were long after to be found 
here. The thunder of the cannon, and the roar of the small-arms without 
were in strange contrast, as a mode of settling disputes, with the still small 
voice within, by which the Friends profess to be guided in adjusting differ- 
ences with one another. But however justifiable we may think the cause 
of it to be, still we must confess that 

"War is a game, which, 
Were their subjects wise, kings would not play at." 

Soon after leaving Downingtown, and passing Gallagherville (a 
small village to the right), and the Caln station, the road crosses the valley 
to the northern side, and passes over the west branch of the Brandywine, 
near Coatesville (a small village to the left) on a bridge 75 feet high, and 
stretching across a chasm 850 feet. The character of the country is still 
the same. Agriculture is here carried to a high state of perfection, and 
every "rood of ground maintains its man." We come now to Midway, a 
small neat village and station near the high bridge. Pursuing our course 
on the north side of the valley, we pass Chandler's and stop at Parkes- 
btjrg to water, 44 miles from the city. This is a neat village of 400 in- 
habitants, containing a large hotel and the machine shops of the State. It 
is the offspring of the Columbia Railroad, and is the residence of its super- 
intendent. Chester County, through which we are now passing, is one of 
the most fertile in the State. The bounties of Providence are here dis- 
tributed with an unsparing hand. In 1850, there were raised in this 
county 1,339,446 bushels of corn, 547,498 of wheat, 1,145,712 of oats, 
96,315 tons of hay, 2,092,019 lbs. of butter. The quantity of corn sur- 
passed that of any county in the State except Lancaster. This county is 
the birthplace of Chief Justice McKean, who was also Governor of the State 
for nine years. It was also the birthplace and residence of General Anthony 
Wayne. The train continues on the north side of the valley, which is here 
sensibly diminished in width, and passes Penningtonville and Christi- 
ana, two thriving villages which have sprung up within a few years on the 
railroad. Christiana, which is just over the line in Lancaster County, 
has been rendered conspicuous by a riot that occurred there in 1851, occa- 
sioned by some Maryland slave owners attempting to arrest their runaway 
negroes. The latter having tasted the sweets of liberty for some time, and 
being joined by their friends in the neighborhood, resisted their claims, and 
resolved to fight for their liberty. The melancholy result was, that a Mr. 
Gorsuch, from Maryland, was killed on the spot, and one or two others were 



11 

severely wounded. A number of those who desired the freedom of the 
negroes, of both white and colored, were indicted for treason by the United 
States, but the trial resulted in their acquittal. We now come to the Gap, 
so called on account of the opening in the mine hill at this place, through 
which the railroad passes. This is the highest point above tide water on 
the State road, being 560 feet. At Christiana we diverge from the beau- 
tiful Chester County valley which we have traversed a distance of 20 miles, 
and at the G-ap we enter the no less beautiful Pequea Valley of Lancaster 
County. Passing Kinsers, Lemon Place, Gordonsville, and Bird-in- 
hand, through an unsurpassed agricultural section, and crossing the beautiful 
Conestoga, we enter Lancaster City, 68 miles from Philadelphia, 38 from 
Harrisburg, and 286 from Pittsburg. Probably no country in the world 
can present a finer picture of agricultural prosperity than that through 
which we have passed from Philadelphia to Lancaster. Taking 20 miles 
on each side of the railroad between those cities, we have 2720 square miles. 
There being 640 acres in a square mile, the quantity in the whole would 
be 1,740,800 acres. This would probably average $85 per acre, making 
the value of such a strip of land nearly one hundred and forty millions 
op dollars. The railroad between those cities cost about four mil- 
lions of DOLLARS. Before this road was built, this strip might have been 
purchased for fifty millions. Lancaster City is the fourth city of 
Pennsylvania with respect to population. It contains about 15,000 inhabit- 
ants. It is the capital of Lancaster County, which is not equalled in the 
value of agricultural productions by any in the State. The oldest turnpike 
in the United States has its western terminus at this place, and connects it 
with the city of Philadelphia. It was incorporated as a city in 1818. The 
inhabitants of this city, owing to the facilities afforded by the railroad, have 
of late years become aroused from their lethargy, and have commenced the 
manufacture of various articles. They have one or two anthracite furnaces 
in full blast, several large cotton steam factories, locomotive works, and 
various other manufacturing establishments. They have also water works 
to supply the citizens with a constant supply of fresh water, and have be- 
come so far refined as to have their streets and their houses lighted with 
gas. A new county prison has been erected at a cost of $110,000, and 
a new court-house at a cost of $100,000. The inhabitants are chiefly of 
German descent. In 1850, Lancaster County, which contains only 950 
square miles, produced 1,803,312 bushels of Indian corn, 1,365,111 of 
wheat, 1,578,321 of oats, 96,134 tons of hay, and 1,907,843 lbs. of but- 
ter. The crop of oats excelled that of any other county in the United 
States ; that of wheat, any other except Monroe County, New York ; that of 
corn, any other county in the State. This county is famous for its large 
barns and large fat horses. At Dillersville, 2 miles west of Lancaster, 
we leave the State Ptailroad (which continues on to Columbia) and take the 
Harrisburg and Lancaster road, which intersects the former at this place. 



12 

Landisville, the next station, is merely a stopping place. Mount Joy 
is a small village in a rich agricultural district. Near this town is a 
flourishing Female Seminary. Elizabethtown station is near the old vil- 
lage of that name on the turnpike, to the right of the railroad. At 
Conewago, we cross the creek of that name, which forms the boundary 
of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties. Middletown, the nest station, is a 
place of some note. It is situated at the mouth of Swatara Creek, on the 
Susquehanna, 9 miles from Harrisburg. There the Union Canal inter- 
sects the Pennsylvania Canal. The town contains 1,200 inhabitants, and 
has a bank and a newspaper office.. Leaving Middletown, we continue our 
course on the banks of the Susquehanna, which now presents its broad 
surface to our view, interspersed with islands and eddies, and rafts of lumber 
from the pine regions above. The canal from Columbia to Pittsburg will 
now form a conspicuous object on a great part of the route. The sound of 
.the boatman's horn may frequently be heard echoing down the valleys and 
over the hills, reminding us of the lines of the poet — 

! boatman, wind that born again, 
For never did the listening air, 
Upon its joyous bosom, bear 
So wild, so soft, so sweet a strain ! 
What though thy notes are sad and few, 

By every simple boatman blown, 
Yet is each pulse to nature true, 

And melody in every tone. 

We now arrive at Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, beautifully 
situated on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, 105 miles from Phila- 
delphia, and 248 from Pittsburg. The Capitol is a handsome brick build- 
ing, occupying a conspicuous position on a lofty eminence, which affords a 
delightful view of the broad Susquehanna, studded with verdant islands, 
and spanned by handsome bridges, with the Kittatinny Mountain in the back- 
ground. Its population is about 9,000. The valley in which this town is 
situated, is fertile and productive, yielding its hundredfold reward to the 
husbandman. Harrisburg has applied to become a city. Being the capital 
of the large State of Pennsylvania, it has long enjoyed an intercourse with 
our most intelligent citizens from all parts of the State, rendering its society 
quite intellectual. Several railroads centre here, giving facilities for com- 
munication with all parts of the State. Besides the railway to Pittsburg 
and Philadelphia, there is the Dauphin and Susquehanna, the York and 
Cumberland, and the Cumberland Valley, which are finished. Then there 
is the North Central, up the Susquehanna to Sunbury, and the Lebanon 
Valley Railroad to Reading, not yet completed. The inhabitants of this 
capital have also caught the spirit of the age, and are in a fair way to 
render their town conspicuous for manufacturing purposes. They have also 
their water-works and gas-works. At this place commences the Pennsyl- 



13 

vania Railroad, which, we now take, and pass rapidly through a highly cul- 
tivated section, having the river on one side and the canal on the other, to 
Rockville, where we cross the Susquehanna on a beautiful bridge, 8,670 
feet in length, 51 J miles above Harrisburg. The large building on the 
high eminence to the right, about 1 mile from the town, is the State 
Lunatic Asylum, recently erected, reflecting much credit on the State for 
thus humanely providing for this unfortunate class of our population. The 
passengers, in crossing this great bridge, should not fail to take a view of 
the scenery from about its centre. It is of the most magnificent character. 

The Susquehanna Bridge was commenced in 1847. The first contract 
was abandoned, and the masonry re-let to Messrs. Helman & Simons, of 
Harrisburg, through whose energy, aided by the exertions of Robert 
McAllister, Esq., of Juniata County, the whole was completed by Decem- 
ber, 1848. Some of the stone was boated by McAllister for a distance of 
50 miles, and delivered ready dressed for the work. The superstructure is 
upon the Heur plan, and was erected by Daniel Stone, who also built the 
new bridge across the Schuylkill at Market Street. In March, 1849, six 
spans of the bridge, while in an unfinished condition, were destroyed by a 
tornado, which was so violent as to blow the water from the river to a height 
of 30 feet, and carried away timbers 40 feet long and of great weight, by 
the force of the wind alone. 

On the western bank of the river may be seen the Blue Mountain, 
which, commencing in the southern part of the State, near the Maryland 
line, continues in an irregular course to the northeast, broken by various 
streams which have forced a passage through it. The celebrated Delaware 
Water Gap is found in this range, the whole of which is characterized by 
its bold and rugged escarpments, and the hardness of its rocks. 

At the west end of the bridge, the traveller enters the county of Perry, 
the surface of which is broken by numerous ridges and valleys, having a 
general parallelism to the Alleghany Back Bone range, but of limited extent 
and of irregular character. The lands in this county are not so productive 
as those which are found east and south of it. The prevailing geological 
formation of the valleys is the red shale, while the mountains exhibit the 
usual characteristics of the sand stone, which are found upon every ridge 
of any considerable elevation in the State. 

The Cove station is so named from a very peculiar curve in the range of 
the Cove Mountain, the summit of which recedes from the river opposite 
the town of Dauphin, and approaches it again at Duncannon. 

The Cove station, 10 miles from Harrisburg, is not a point of any busi- 
ness importance, but it furnishes an abundance of pure water, and wood 
from the mountain sides. 

The next object of interest is the point of rocks at the northern extremity 
of the Cove Mountain ; here the road is forced close to the edge of the river, 
and a deep cut is encountered, which has given much trouble, from slips of 



14 

rock, but whieli is now safe. The county road winds along the mountain 
at an elevation of sixty feet above the railroad; it was cut out of the solid 
rock by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, who were required to make 
a new road in place of the old one, occupied by the bed of the railroad. 

On the opposite side of the river in Dauphin County, is seen the bold 
elevation called Peters' Mountain, once apparently connected with Cove 
Mountain, but now separated by the Susquehanna. 

Passing the point of rocks by a sharp curve to the west, the traveller 
soon crosses the beautiful Sherman's Creek, and his ears are saluted with 
the heavy reverberations of the forge, the roar of the water-fall, and the 
busy noises of the rolling mills. The evidences of industry and thrift are 
conspicuous in this locality, and the enterprise of William Logan Fisher 
has erected here a monument durable as brass. Pig, bar, rolled, and ham- 
mered iron, nails and spikes are the products of these works. Anthracite 
coal is brought by canal from the Shamokin region, and various localities, 
some of which are very distant, are laid under contribution for the best 
varieties of ores. 

One mile above Duncannon is seen the mouth of the Juniata ; its precise 
locality may be distinguished by the smaller of the two bridges, which are 
upon the right. The large bridge crosses the Susquehanna, and is used as 
a common road bridge, and also as a towing path, by means of which the 
boats navigating the main line and the Susquehanna division of the Penn- 
sylvania Canal, are enabled to cross the jiver in the pool of water known to 
lumbermen as Green's Dam. 

Duncan's Island, for many years previous to the decease of Mrs. Duncan, 
a well-known and much frequented place of summer resort, is bounded by 
the Juniata, the Susquehanna, and a small channel on the north side con- 
necting these two streams. It embraces several hundred acres of excellent 
farming land, and a considerable population is found upon the island 
brought together chiefly by the lumber trade, which is very active at this 
place during the freshets of the Susquehanna. Dealers in lumber from the 
principal cities and from the various towns on the river below Harrisburg, 
resort to the island to make their purchases, and secure the pick of the 
market. 

Duncan's Island was a pleasant spot, and those who in former years made 
it their resort for recreation, and who have enjoyed the society of the hos- 
pitable mistress of the mansion, and of the amiable Julia, who have sat 
beneath the foliage of the majestic forest trees, or rambled along the streams 
or in the gardens — 

"When opening roses breathing sweets diffuse, 

And soft carnations shower their balmy dews : 

Where lilies smile in robes of virgin white, 

The thin undress of superficial light, 

And varied tulips show so dashing gay, 

Blushing in bright diversities of day," 



15 

will be saddened by the recollection that these pleasures are past never to 
return. 

Passing along a rocky side hill for a distance of nearly two miles, the 
train usually stops at the Aqueduct. Here passengers for the Susque- 
hanna region are transferred to the packet-boat, -which, after receiving its 
cargo of human freight, crosses the Aqueduct, and is towed by horses to 
Williamsport, on the west branch of the Susquehanna. 

Leaving our friends in the packet to the enjoyment of their bilge-water 
and mosquitoes, and to all the comforts of narrow berths, crying babies, 
and the chances of suffocation, enjoyments which a shower of rain is sure 
greatly to enhance, we will bid adieu to the blue hills of the Susquehanna, 
and its broad shining waters, and wend our way to the sources of the 
gently flowing Juniata, where they gush forth in copious streams from the 
broad bosom of the Alleghanies. 

The next station is Baileysburg. Mahoney Eidge and Limestone 
Eidge approach the river near this point from the west. 

Newport is a thriving town, six miles northeast of Bloomfield, the 
county seat; it is a place of considerable business, the shipments being 
large both by railroad and canal. It is the second town in population in 
Perry County. The Little Buffalo Creek empties into the Juniata at 
Newport. 

Half a mile above Newport is the terminus of Middle Eidge, and at the 
distance of a mile the railroad crosses the Big Buffalo Creek by means of 
a stone viaduct of five spans. s 

Millerstown is the last station in Perry County; it is readily distin- 
guished by the neat station-house, erected by the Pennsylvania Eailroad 
Company, at the end of the bridge. 

Perry County is bounded on the northwest by the Great Tusearora Moun- 
tain, through which the Juniata forces its way about one mile above Mil- 
lerstown, leaving the deep rocky channel worn 

"By ever flowing streams — arteries of eai-th, 
That, widely-branching, circulate its blood, 
Whose ever throbbing pulses are the tides." 

At the Tusearora Mountain the railroad, the general course of which for 
several miles has been but a few degrees west of north, turns, suddenly to 
the southwest, following for several miles the base of the mountain. 

Eight miles north of Millerstown was formerly a remarkable natural 
phenomenon, known as the roaring spring, the waters of which rose with 
great force below the surface of the river, causing a violent ebullition accom- 
panied with noise. This spring is no longer visible ; the unsparing pro- ' 
gress of improvement has entombed it beneath the rocky embankments of 
the road bed. 



16 

We are now on the north side of the Tusearora Mountain, in the valley 
of the same name, and in the County of Juniata. 

Mexico, forty-five miles from Harrisburg, is not the celebrated city of 
the Aztecs, and has never been distinguished by any of the sanguinary 
battles which marked the progress of Scott's campaign ; but it is not with- 
out its historical associations. Opposite Mexico, some white men, in at- 
tempting to dig a cellar for a house, were shot by Indians ; and a terrible 
war was once waged between two tribes, which originated in a quarrel be- 
tween some Indian children about grasshoppers, and was known as the 
Grasshopper War. Sensible, was it not ? Quite as sensible as the origin 
of many of the wars which have distracted nations, boasting of greater ad- 
vances in civilization and refinement. 

Perrysville, the depot of Tusearora Yalley, is at the mouth of Tusea- 
rora Creek. A flourishing Academy is located in the valley, about eight 
miles distant. 

One mile above Perrysville, the road passes along the face of Law's 
Ridge, an extremely steep and rocky bluff, consisting of variegated shales 
and sandstones, which present a most singular appearance, the strata being 
bent and curved in every direction, sometimes forming semicircles. 

From the point of Law's Ridge, the town of Mifflin, the county seat 
of Juniata, is in view, on the opposite side of the river, and in a few min- 
utes the cars stop at Patterson House, ,built by Messrs. Fallon & 
Wright, of Philadelphia, and is now owned by the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company. They intend to make a first rate house here to accommo- 
date travellers. The town of Patterson does not improve so rapidly as 
was anticipated, although one of the machine shops of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company is located at this place ; very few improvements have 
been made except by the Company. The row of brown frame houses on 
the hill south of the road, was built hy the Company for the accommoda- 
tion of its workmen. 

Four miles west of Mifflin, the road enters the gloomy and contracted 
passage between the Black Log on the south, and the Shade Mountain on 
the north, known as the Long Narrows. Previous to the construction of the 
road, there was no habitation on the south side of the Narrows, and but one 
public house on the north side. This house was in such a dilapidated con- 
dition that, it is said, the engineers, who made the location, were compelled 
in rainy weather to sit up in bed with umbrellas hoisted, to protect them- 
selves from shower baths, which they had not stipulated for as a part of the 
accommodations to be furnished. We are not able to inform our readers 
whether an extra charge was made for the unusual comforts, but it is sup- 
posed that " mine host" furnished the baths gratuitously. 

At the west end of the Narrows is the large and flourishing town of 
Lewistown (61 miles from Harrisburg, 187 from Pittsburg), the most 
important in the valley of the Juniata, the county seat of Mifilin County, 



17 

and the outlet of the great and fertile valley of Kishicoquillas. Iron ore of 
excellent quality abounds in this county; there are many iron works, and 
in the limestone districts several curious caves containing stalactites. The 
lovely valley in which Lewistown is situated, is a specimen of many similar 
valleys that adorn this mountain region. It is not to be compared with the 
valley of Wyoming, of which the poet has sung in the following strain : 
" On Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming ! 

Although the wild flower on thy ruined wall, 

And roofless homes, a sad remembrance bring 

Of what thy gentle people did befall ; 
' Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all 

That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. 

Sweet land ! may I thy lost delights recall, 

And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of yore, 

Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania's shore !" 

The valley of Kishicoquillas has not had the advantage of being cele- 
brated in song, like its fair sister on the Susquehanna. But although no 
Campbell has, in poetic page, rendered this valley forever classical, and 
thrown around it the witcheries of its own equally lovely Gertrudes, it 
has had, nevertheless, what one who knew him well has described, the best 
specimen of humanity he ever met with, either while or red, viz : Logan, 
the celebrated Indian chief. This noble Indian is identified with the valley 
of Kishicoquillas in which Lewistown is situated, and, although an unlet- 
tered red man of the forest, his celebrated speech will be perpetuated in his- 
tory as long as the beautiful poem, the Gertrude op Wyoming, shall live 
in classic lore. " A resident of the place boasts, not without some reason, 
that many circumstances concur to make Lewistown a desirable resort for 
strangers. The scenery is the finest in the world ; we breathe the pure 
mountain air. Our clear streams abound with fish, particularly trout. Our 
forests are filled with game of every description ; and Milliken's Spring, 
on a farm adjoining the town, is ascertained to possess all the medicinal 
qualities of the Bedford water, particularly in bilious complaints." 

Of Kishicokelas,* the Indian tradition has preserved little but the name. 
Another friendly chief distinguished in American annals, had his cabin for 
a number of years beside a beautiful limestone spring, on Kishicoquillas 
Creek, a mile or two above the wild gorge, where the creek passes Jack's 
Mountain. This was Logan, the Mingo chief, whose eloquent speech is 
familiar to every one. Logan was the son of Shikellimus, a chief of the 
Cayugas. Mingo, or Mengwe, was the name given by the Delawares to the 
Iroquois, or Sis Nations. 

The following anecdote was related by Judge Brown, the first actual set- 
tler in Kishicoquillas Valley, and for many years one of the Associate 
Judges of Mifflin County : — 

* Often spelled in this way. 



18 

" The first time I ever saw that spring/' said the old gentleman, " my 
brother, James Reed, and myself, had wandered out of the valley in search 
of land, and finding it very good, we were looking about for springs. About 
a mile from this we started a bear, and separated to get a shot at him. I 
was travelling along, looking about on the rising ground for the bear, when 
I came suddenly upon the spring ; and being dry, and more rejoiced to find 
so fine a spring than to have killed a dozen bears, I set my rifle against a 
bush, and rushed down the bank and laid down to drink. Upon putting 
my head down, I saw reflected in the water on the opposite side, the shadow 
of a tall Indian. I sprang to my rifle, when the Indian gave a yell, whether 
for peace or war I was not just then sufficiently master of my faculties to 
determine ; but upon my seizing my rifle and facing him, he knocked up the 
pan of his gun, threw out the priming, and extended his open palm towards 
me in token of friendship. After putting down our guns, we again met at 
the spring and shook hands. This was Logan — the best specimen of hu- 
manity I ever met with, either ruliite or red. He could speak a little English, 
and told me there was another white hunter a little way down the stream, 
and offered to guide me to his camp. There I first met Samuel Maclay. 
We remained together in the valley a week, looking for springs and select- 
ing lands, and laid the foundation of a friendship which has never had the 
slightest interruption. 

"Mr. Maclay and I visited Logan at his camp, at Logan Spring, and Mr. 
M. and he shot at a mark for a dollar a shot. Logan lost four or five . 
rounds, and acknowledged himself beaten. When we were about to leave 
him, he went into his hut and brought out as many deerskins as he had lost 
dollars, and handed them to Mr. M., who refused to take them, alleging 
that we had been his guests, and had not come to rob him ; that the shoot- 
ing had been only a trial of skill, and the bet merely nominal. Logan 
drew himself up with great dignity, and said : ' Me bet to make you shoot 
your best — me gentleman — and me take your dollar if me beat.' So he 
was obliged to take the skins or affront our friend, whose nice sense of 
honor would not allow him to receive even a flask of powder in return. 

"The next year," said the old gentleman, "I brought my wife up and 
camped under a big walnut tree, on the bank of Tea Creek, until I had 
built a cabin near where the mill now stands, and have lived in the valley 
ever since. Poor Logan," and the big tears coursed each other down his 
cheeks, " soon after went into the Alleghany, and I never saw him again." 

The following additional incidents highly characteristic of the benevolent 
chief were related by Mrs. Norris, a daughter of Judge Brown. 

Logan supported his family by killing deer, dressing the skins and sell- 
ing them to the whites. He had sold quite a parcel to one De Young, who 
lived in Ferguson's Valley, below the gap. Tailors in those days dealt ex- 
tensively in buckskin breeches. Logan received his pay, according to 
stipulation, in wheat. The wheat on being taken to the mill was found so 



19 

worthless that the miller refused to grind it. Logan was much chagrined 
and attempted in vain to obtain redress from the tailor. He then took the 
matter before his friend Brown, then a magistrate, and on the judge's 
questioning him as to the character of the wheat, Logan sought in vain to 
find words to express the precise nature of the article, with which the 
wheat was adulterated, but said that it resembled in appearance the wheat 
itself. "It must have been cheat," said the judge. " Yoh," said Logan, " that 
very good name for him." A decision was awarded in Logan's favor, and a 
writ given to Logan to hand to the constable, which he was told would bring 
him the money for his skins. But the untutored Indian, too uncivilized 
to be dishonest, could not comprehend by what magic this little piece of 
paper would force the tailor against his will to pay for the skins. The 
judge took down his own commission with the arms of the king upon it, 
and explained to him the first principles and operations of civil law. " Law 
good," said Logan ; " make rogues pay." But how much more simple and 
efficient was the law which the Great Spirit had impressed upon his heart, 
to do as he would be done by. 

When a sister of Mrs. Norris (afterwards Mrs. G-en. Potter) was just 
beginning to learn to walk, her mother happened to express a regret that 
she could not get a pair of shoes to give more firmness to her little step. 
Logan soon after asked Mrs. Brown to let the little girl go and spend the 
day at his cabin. The cautious heart of a mother was alarmed at such a 
proposition, but she knew the delicacy of an Indian's feelings, and she 
knew Logan too, and with secret reluctance, but apparent cheerfulness she 
complied with his request. The hours of the day wore very slowly away ; 
night approached, and the little one had not returned. But just as the sun 
was going down, the trusty chief was seen coming down the path with his 
charge, and in a moment more the little one trotted into her mother's arms, 
proudly exhibiting a beautiful pair of moccasins on her little feet, the pro- 
duct of Logan's skill. 

Such was the man whose whole family was afterwards barbarously mur- 
dered on the Ohio below Wheeling, by some white savages, without a 
shadow of provocation. It was not long after that act, that his consent 
was asked by a messenger with wampum, to a treaty with Lord Dunmore, 
on the Scioto in 1774. Logan delivered to the messenger the following 
speech which is now well authenticated to have been his own, and not com- 
posed, as had been suspected, by Mr. Jefferson. 

" I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin 
hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and 
he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, 
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my 
love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed and said, 
' Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to have lived 
with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresop, the last spring, in 



20 

cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even 
sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in 
the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have" 
sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my vengeance 
for my country. I rejoice at the beams of peace ; but do not harbor a 
thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not 
turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there, then, to mourn for Logan ? 
Not one." 

Logan was the son of Shikellimus, a Cayuga chief, who dwelt at Shamo- 
kin in 1742, and was converted to Christianity under the preaching of the 
Moravian missionaries. Shikellimus had a high esteem for James Logan, 
the secretary of the province, and most probably had his son baptized with 
the Christian rites by the missionaries. 

McVeytown, also called Waynesbtjrg, is situated on the canal 11 miles 
above Lewistown. It has been incorporated as a borough. 

At Newton Hamilton, the river makes a horseshoe bend, while the 
road cuts across the neck greatly reducing the distance, but encountering 
considerable rock excavation. At the west side of the bend the road crosses 
the Juniata on a bridge 70 feet above the water, and at a considerable ele- 
vation above the canal and aqueduct. The river at this place forms the 
boundary between the counties of Mifflin and Huntingdon. 

Mt. Union, 85 miles from Harrisburg and 162 from Pittsburg, in 
Huntingdon County, is at the entrance of the gap of Jack's Mountain. 
Passengers are conveyed in stages to Shirleysburg and other towns in the 
southern part of the county. 

The gap of Jack's Mountain presents a peculiarly wild and rugged 
appearance. The sides of the mountain are almost entirely destitute of 
vegetation, and covered with immense masses of gray and time-worn rocks. 
At the foot of the mountain is the village of Jackstown. A few years 
since, it was announced in the newspapers that an awful conflagration had 
entirely destroyed the village of Jackstown, not a single house having been 
left standing. The calamity would not have appeared quite so distressing 
if the writer had stated the fact, that the only house in the village was a 
double house, built of stone, the roof of which was consumed. 

Mapleton is the depot for Hare's Valley, on the north of which is the 
range of the famous Sideling Hill, well known to "travellers on the National 
Road between Hancock and Cumberland. 

West of Sideling Hill is the Broad Top Mountain, an isolated eleva- 
tion containing a small and singular bituminous coal basin, the vein3 of 
which are from one to four feet in thickness, of good quality for steam gene- 
rating purposes. A railroad is in progress of construction, connecting this 
basin with the canal and railroad at Huntingdon. 

Mill Creek, ninety-one miles from Harrislmrg, is the depot of the 
agricultural products of the west end of Kishicoquillas Valley. 



21 

South of Mill Creek is a most singular topographical formation, called 
Trough Creek Valley, formed by Sideling Hill and Terrace Mountain, which 
unite at the south side of the river in a ridge of sufficient elevation to turn 
the courses of the streams to the south ; after many miles, the waters are 
again returned to the north by uniting with the Raystown Branch, which 
empties into the main Juniata a short distance above Mill Creek. 

Although the scenery along the Juniata is characterized by great beauty, 
it is probable that no portion of it is more diversified and picturesque, than 
that which is presented to the eye of the traveller in the vicinity of Hunt- 
ingdon. Retracing his journey in imagination, he will 

" Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, 
And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace." 

Huntingdon County is surpassed by few, if any, in the variety and rich- 
ness of its mineral deposits, or in the fertility of its valleys. This county, 
previous to the separation of Blair, contained sixteen furnaces, twenty-four 
forges, and one rolling-mill. 

Huntingdon County was first settled in 1749 ; its early history is similar 
to that of the neighboring counties, being characterized by Indian depreda- 
tions, and feats of endurance and valor on the part of the settlers. 

The stream which empties into the Juniata at the town of Huntingdon, 
is called Standing Stone, from a remarkable stone, for many years held sa- 
cred by the Indians, and regarded by them as a sort of talisman. 

Huntingdon, ninety-seven miles west of Harrisburg, is the county seat. 
It was laid out previous to the Revolutionary war, and named after Selina, 
the Countess of Huntingdon, who had been a liberal patroness of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

Large quantities of lead ore were obtained in this county previous to the 
war of the Revolution, chiefly from Sinking Valley, on the south side of 
the Little Juniata, but the low price at which lead can be brought from 
the western States, where it exists in much greater abundance, has caused 
the abandonment of the mines in this locality. 

At Petersburg, the next station, the canal and railway, which have 
been close companions for more than one hundred miles, part company. 
The canal takes the course of the Frankstown Branch, through Alexandria, 
Water Street, and Williamsburg to Hollidaysburg, while the railroad fol- 
lows the rugged path cut for it by the Little Juniata. 

Here mountain on mountain exultingly throws, 

Through storm, mist, and snow, its black crags to the skies ; 

In their shadows, the sweets of the valleys repose, 

While streams, gay with verdure and sunshine, steal by. 

Tyrone City is the next station on the Little Juniata, at the mouth of 
Little Bald Eagle Creek, and one mile west of Tyrone forges (owned by 
Lyon, Shorb & Co.). This flourishing town has sprung up since the con- 



22 

struction of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and is rapidly increasing. It now 
contains about one thousand inhabitants, several first rate hotels, a foundry, 
a machine shop, planing mill, churches, &c. A plank road, five miles in 
length, leading to Bald Eagle furnace, commences here. And charters 
have been obtained for railroads to connect New York and Lake Erie with 
the Pennsylvania Railroad at this point. It is already one of the best 
stations on the road — commanding a large share of the business of Clear- 
field and Clarion Counties. 

At Tyrone City the railroad leaves the deep gorge of the Little Juniata, 
which it has followed through the mountains for the last twelve miles, and 
enters Tuckahoe Valley. This valley lies between the main range of the Alle- 
ghanies and Brush Mountain. Its general width is about three miles, and 
its length about fifteen miles. The southern side is rich limestone land, and 
the northern side is clayey soil ; the railroad runs nearly through its centre. 
On the south side of this valley are extensive deposits of iron ore, from 
which are drawn the supplies for Elizabeth, Blair, and Alleghany furnaces, 
and on the north side, the Alleghany Mountains contain inexhaustible beds 
of bituminous coal. 

Tipton is the next station. A plank road extends across the Alleghany 
Mountains a distance of thirteen miles, to the Clearfield Lumber Company's 
extensive improvements, and within four miles of the station. Coal has 
been found, which is said to be of an excellent quality. A very large lumber 
business is now doing at this station. A branch railroad, seven miles, is 
about to be constructed to the Alleghany coal deposits. Two miles beyond 
is Eostoria, called after William B. Foster, Jr., Vice President of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. At this point a very large lumber busi- 
ness has been doing. Two miles beyond is Bell's Mills, a station at 
which a large lumber business is doing. Mr. B. F. Bell, the proprietor of 
the property at this point, an energetic and progressive man, is sinking an 
extensive well, which has been carried to the depth of 1200 feet through 
solid rock. Water has not yet been reached. 

This is the last station till the cars stop at Altoona. At Blair's furnace, 
three miles below Altoona, and within half a mile of the railroad, is one of 
the richest banks of iron ore in the State. 

Altoona, the great centre of the operations of the road, contains about 
three thousand inhabitants. Four years since its site was marked only by 
an old log house, which may be seen near the railroad in the western part 
of the town. It has been brought into existence by the Company alone. 
At the head of Tuckahoe Valley, and at the foot of the Alleghanies, it oc- 
cupies a commanding and important position in reference to the operations 
of the road. East of this place the grades along the Juniata are about 
twenty feet to the mile. Near Altoona, ascending, they are increased to 
ninety-five feet to the mile. Of course the enlarged power required as 
well as the changes of climate, the character of the country, and many 



23 

other circumstances, mark Altoona as a point where the nature of the road 
undergoes an essential change, and these considerations led to its being 
made the very heart of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's system. 
The workshops of the Company are already over one thousand feet in 
length by seventy in width; about one thousand persons are employed. 
There are also extensive car-houses, blacksmith shops, carpenter shops, 
brass foundry, tin shop, paint shop, engine repair shops, boiler shop, store 
house, iron foundry, &c. &c, and two circular engine houses, one of which 
is sis hundred feet in circumference, ninety feet high, surmounted by a 
dome of gigantic proportions. Here also is the house of the general superin- 
tendent, Herman J. Lombaert, and the various offices for the transac- 
tion of the business of the Company, and the Logan Hotel, recently pro- 
nounced by an intelligent English traveller, to be "better than any in 
Europe, and equal to any in America." 

This sumptuous hotel gives to the traveller unusual interest in the place. 
He knows that his keen appetite can be satisfied here in the most luxurious 
manner. This house was erected by the Company in order to insure to 
travellers the best accommodations. at all times. 

From Altoona there is a plank road, and a branch railroad to Hollidays- 
burg, distance seven miles, situated on the northern turnpike leading from 
Harrisburg to Pittsburg, at the junction of the Juniata division of the 
Pennsylvania Canal. To this junction, and to the creation of the county 
of Blair, of which this town is the seat of justice, it owes a rapid growth, 
having sprung in a few years from an obscure village of fifty inhabitants to 
a thriving town of over three thousand population. Travellers to Bedford 
Springs leave Altoona by the branch road, and take stages at Hollidaysburg, 
passing over a plank road and turnpike twenty-eight miles to that delight- 
ful watering place. 

At this point we begin to climb the Alleghany Mountains, and although 
we ascend them at the rate of 95 feet to the mile, until we attain the height 
of 2,160 feet above tide water, yet we scarcely perceive any diminution of 
speed in the iron horse. As we ascend one mile after another, until we 
reach the tunnel, a distance of 12 miles from Altoona, the traveller is en- 
chanted with the mountain scenery, and exhilarated with the idea that he is 
actually climbing the tall Alleghany Mountains on a railroad, at the rate of 
20 to 30 miles an hour. This is one of the greatest triumphs of science 
and genius. The accompanying map will show the serpentine windings of 
the road. 

After passing through the great tunnel, which is about three-quarters of 
a mile in length, we arrive at Gallitzin, named after Prince Gallitzin, a 
Roman Catholic Priest of a noble Russian family, who settled at Loretto, 
in Cambria County, in 1789, and died on the 6th of May, 1840; a worthy 
and modest individual, who renounced the honors of his station, and devoted 
his time and his means to charitable purposes. It has been said of him : 



24 

" If his heart had been made of gold, he would have coined it for the 
poor." The tunnel through the mountain is 8,670 feet long, and the height 
of earth above it is 210 feet. It is handsomely arched throughout. Great 
difficulty was encountered in making this enormous work, but every ob- 
stacle has been happily overcome, and it now presents an object well calcu- 
lated to excite the wonder of strangers, and arouse the pride of Pennsyl- 
vanians. Although passing under and through the Alleghany Mountains, 
at a high rate of speed, there is not the slightest danger. Indeed, acci- 
dents rarely occur where there is any appearance of peril, for the additional 
precautions adopted at all such places are almost absolute assurances of 
safety. 

In descending the mountain on its western side, the traveller is cheered 
by the frequent view of the rapid and gradually increasing Conemaugh, 
whose limped waters rise two miles west of the tunnel, and join Stony 
Creek at Johnstown (a distance of 26 miles), and form the main river 
along which the road continues until it passes Laurel Hill and Chestnut 
Ridge. It may be seen sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left, 
hastening down the mountain as if in competition with the " iron horse." 
The traveller will have its cheering company for fifty miles, to Blairsville 
intersection. Three miles further we reach Cresson, where Dr. Jackson 
has a hotel, much frequented by persons from Pittsburg during the sum- 
mer, the scenery being beautiful, and the air always cool and bracing. 
This hotel, when completed, must become a great resort for citizens in the 
summer season. Its elevated situation on the Alleghany Mountain must 
render the air delightful in the hottest weather. The facilities of reaching 
the place without fatigue, the thrice a day intercourse with each of the 
cities, the mountain scenery, the trout fishing, and the many objects of in- 
terest in the vicinity, combine to make it a desirable retreat. The road 
here crosses the northern turnpike, on which, about a mile distant, and at 
the junction of the old Portage road, is the summit of the mountain and 
the town of that name. Lillys, at the foot of Plane No. 4, on the Port- 
age, is a water station in the woods. 

Portage, at the foot of Plane No. 2, is also inconsiderable. 

Willmore adjoins the town of Jefferson, which has nearly a thousand 
inhabitants. A plank road connects this place with Ebensburg, the capi- 
tal of Cambria County, and thence to Loretto, and northward towards 
Clearfield. The trade of the large section of country north of Willmore is 
thus brought to this point, and rapidly increasing, it promises to make this 
an important station. 

Summerhill, adjoining the old half-way house on the Portage Road, is 
a wood and water station. 

Viaduct. At this point the road crosses the Conemaugh at the Horse- 
shoe Bend, by a stone viaduct of eighty feet span. 

At Conemaugh we find an engine house, work shops, &c, of the Com- 



25 

pany, this being the western terminus of the Mountain Division. A few 
years since it was of but little value, but a village is rapidly growing, cre- 
ated by the company's works. 

Johnstown was originally the point of shipment for iron brought from 
the Juniata to the west, and floated in flat boats down the Conemaugh, past 
many places where furnaces now furnish this metal at one-fourth the ancient 
cost. The construction of the State Canal and Portage Railroad was of 
great advantage to this town, but it is indebted for its present highly pros- 
perous condition chiefly to the Pennsylvania Railroad. It lies at the junc- 
tion of the Western Division of toe Pennsylvania Canal and the Portage Rail- 
road, and at the point where Stony Creek empties into the Conemaugh River. 
Both these streams penetrate a country rich in coal, iron, cement-rock, fine 
clay &c, and these mineral treasures have given to Johnstown extensive 
iron works and other industrial establishments. The Cambria Iron Com- 
pany's establishment is one of the largest in America. 

Of these works an account is to be found in " Taylor's Statistics of 
Coal," from which we condense a brief statement. They are situated at the 
confluence of the Little and Great Conemaugh Rivers, immediately below 
Johnstown. The property embraces about twenty-five thousand acres. 
The lands, with a few charcoal furnaces and other improvements, were pur- 
chased a few years ago for the sum of three hundred thousand dollars. 
The country has been here upheaved by some internal convulsion, and with 
it, on both sides of a narrow valley, the richest deposits of iron ore, bitu- 
minous coal, hydraulic cement, fire-brick clay, and limestone, in strata con- 
tiguous to each other. The principal vein, adjoining the furnace and rolling- 
mill (carbonate of iron), lies over the coal measures, about two hundred feet 
above the bed of the Conemaugh, and sixty feet above the tunnel head of 
the furnaces. «' 

Besides the four blast furnaces, which have lately been enlarged and im- 
proved, and are now yielding a product of two hundred tons of pigs per 
week, the Company have nearly completed four other blast furnaces, for 
smelting with coke the iron ore taken from the face of the hill, and calcu- 
lated to produce each five thousand tons of pigs per annum, making an ag- 
gregate of about twenty-eight thousand tons per annum. 

They have also finished a long rolling-mill, six hundred by three hundred 
and fifty feet in extent, in the shape of a cross, with sixty puddling stacks, 
twelve heating furnaces, four scrap furnaces, &c, and which, when in full 
operation, will produce more than one hundred tons of railway iron per day, 
or thirty thousand tons per annum. This, we believe, is the largest single 
mill in existence. The engine for the four blast furnaces is four hundred 
horse power. * 

The Johnstown Iron Furnace, belonging to Messrs. Rhey Mathews & Co. 
is on a smaller scale, but its operations have been carried on during the past 
three or four years with extraordinary energy and signal success. 



26 

Johnstown being by far the most important point in this section of 
country, its people have long thought that a new county should be created 
out of parts of Cambria, Westmoreland and Somerset, to be called Cone- 
maugh, with Johnstown as the county seat. 

From this point there is a turnpike road to Legonier, Westmoreland 
County, another to Ebensberg, Cambria County, and a plank road to 
Somerset, population nearly five thousand. 

Conemaugh Furnace belongs to Rhey Mathews & Co., and has been 
in successful operation during the past three years. On the opposite side 
of the Conemaugh is Indiana Furnace, belonging to Elias Baker, of Blair 
Co. The population is about five hundred, and these furnaces furnish an 
important local trade to the railroad. 

Nineveh is at present of small account, but it is believed that it will 
become in time a considerable depot for the lumber and other products of 
the southern portion of Indiana County. There is a wood and water 
station at this point. 

New Florence is exclusively a railroad town, and is as yet too young 
to have a history. It is surrounded by a fine mineral region ; there are 
several furnaces in the neighborhood, and it is rapidly improving. It is 
proposed to make it the capital of a new county to be called Legonier, and 
to embrace the beautiful and fertile valley of that name. From Florence 
roads diverge to Legonier and other points on the south, and to Indiana on 
the north. The Railroad Company has an extensive wood and water station 
at this place. 

Lockport, on the canal, where it crosses the Conemaugh by a very beau- 
tiful cut stone aqueduct, is the next point. John Covode, the representative 
in Congress from this district, an enterprising citizen of this neighborhood, 
has built a large and substantial brick warehouse at this place, and a con- 
siderable local trade is done chiefly from Legonier Valley. One of the late 
Dr. Shoenburger's iron furnaces is also located here. The roads to the 
south lead through Covodesville to Legonier and the southern turnpike. 
Just above here is a six foot vein of coal, of an excellent quality, belonging 
to the Westmoreland Coal Company, who are about erecting furnaces for 
making coke. 

Bolivar is the seat of an extensive and most valuable fire-brick manu- 
factory. 

Blairsville Intersection. At this point the Branch Road to Blairs- 
ville (3 miles), and thence to Indiana (16 miles), diverges from the main line. 

From Cresson's Station on the Alleghany Mountains to this intersection, 
the road has followed the Conemaugh, and the traveller cannot fail to have 
been alternately delighted with the beauty and awed by the grandeur of 
the scenery. Among the latter the most remarkable is the cut along the 
Pack Saddle Mountain one mile east of the intersection. The road passes 
through the Chestnut Ridge at a gap formed by the Conemaugh upon a 



27 

narrow ledge cut out of the solid rock in the side of the mountain, at a dis- 
tance of one hundred and sixty feet above the river and canal. 

Blairsville, on the right, three miles from the station, is an important 
town in Indiana County, on the canal and the Northern turnpike, and is 
the junction of the Northwestern with the Pennsylvania Eailroad. This 
will bring Blairsville into immediate intercourse with Lake Erie and the 
extensive and, as yet, almost unsettled territory of Northwestern Pennsyl- 
vania, which abounds in coal, iron, and timber. The population is about 
three thousand, and is rapidly increasing. 

Indiana, nineteen miles from the intersection, is the capital of Indiana 
County, and the terminus of the Branch Railroad. It is a neat, thriving 
village, with excellent society, and is a pleasant place of residence. Its 
trade is not large, and the town has been heretofore indebted for its mode- 
rate prosperity chiefly to the public business, but it is believed that the rail- 
road will make it a considerable shipping point, and change its peaceful 
tranquillity into the activity of an extensive traffic. 

Returning to the main line, the next station is Hill Side, where the 
Company has an extensive depot for wood and water. 

Millwood is a small station, doing an inconsiderable business. 

Derry station is about one mile south of the ancient village of that 
name, and is an important water and wood station. Roads diverge from 
here to various parts of Westmoreland County. 

St. Clair is a new railroad town, and is improving. 

Latrobe was laid out by Oliver W. Barnes, Esq., four years ago, and 
now contains a population of about eight hundred. It has a very extensive 
hotel, engine house, large warehouses, &c. There are several manufactur- 
ing establishments, including car works, iron foundry, &c. The road here 
crosses the Loyal Hanna by a substantial stone askew bridge. Roads di- 
verge from Latrobe in every direction through the rich agricultural region 
by which it is surrounded, and a stage for Youngstown connects with every 
train. 

Beatty's is a small station, connected by a turnpike two miles long, 
with the southern turnpike. About a mile from this place is the Benedic- 
tine Monastery and College, which numbers some two hundred students. 
Near this there is a young ladies' boarding school, conducted by the Sisters 
of Mercy. Both these institutions are located on beautiful farms, admir- 
ably cultivated, and the buildings are very extensive and complete for the 
purposes for which they are designed. 

George's Station is a shipping point for a portion of the produce of the 
fertile country through which we are now passing. 

Greensburg, capital of Westmoreland County, was the original seat of 
justice of what now constitutes most of the southwestern counties, in- 
cluding Alleghany ; and it is a curious illustration of the rapid and decisive 
changes which have taken place in the west, that it is within the memory 



28 

of many living men, when counsel, parties, and witnesses came from Pitts- 
burg, during court week, to Greensburg to try their cases. Among the 
lawyers of these days were Ross, Breckenridge, Baldwin, Wilkins, and 
others, whom the traditions of the bar represent to have been of profound 
learning and most vigorous intellect. For many years before the construc- 
tion of the railroad, Greensburg had remained stationary, but recently it 
has received a considerable impetus, and now feels the advantage of the 
rich and populous country around it. This remark applies generally to the 
county of Westmoreland, through which the road runs for more than sixty 
miles. Nature was prodigal of her gifts to this favored county — fertile 
soil, healthy climate, beautiful scenery, rich mines of iron, abundance of 
coal, gave to her people profuse means of prosperity. But want of ready 
and cheap access to market had rendered all these advantages comparatively 
valueless. 

Simplicity, virtue, and contentment, are the distinguishing characteristics 
of the population. The railroad has opened the world to them, taught 
them the value of their advantages, inspired them with enterprise, and has 
added already enormously to the wealth of the community. It is, perhaps, 
not going too far to say that the additional value of the land in this county 
alone, is sufficient to pay the entire cost of the construction of the road. 

Greensburg has always been distinguished for the refinement and intel- 
ligence of many of its inhabitants, and is a delightful summer residence, 
much resorted to by Pittsburgers. It contains about sixteen hundred in- 
habitants. Immediately east of the town is the junction of the contem- 
plated Branch Railroad to Uniontown, Fayette County, and on the west, the 
Hempfield Railroad, now in process of construction, joins the Pennsylvania 
road, thus connecting it with the Ohio River at Wheeling. 

Roads diverge from Greensburg to all parts of the country, and stages 
leave for Mount Pleasant, Somerset, Uniontown, Bedford, Legonier, and 
Cumberland, Maryland. 

In the Presbyterian churchyard, on the left of the railroad as you enter 
Greensburg, General Arthur St. Clair is buried. His life, obscure in 
its commencement, afterwards distinguished, then unfortunate, and finally 
full of trouble, was, nevertheless, always marked by the most scrupulous 
honor, and his conduct and position during the Revolution have connected 
his name inseparably with the history of this country. Born in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, he accompanied the fleet under Admiral Boscawen to America in 
1755. He was a lieutenant in the British army, commanded by General 
Wolfe. At the close of the French war he was assigned to the charge of 
Fort Legonier, in the valley of that name, now the western part of West- 
moreland County. One thousand acres of land having been granted to him, 
he laid it out in circular form, and selected almost the worst in the county — 
preferring, singularly enough, the barren rocks and stones of Chestnut 
Ridge to the fertile limestone lands of the valleys around him. He became 



29 

a justice of the peace, and was then first prothonotary of the county, and 
at Greensburg may still be seen many records authenticated by him in the 
name of " our Sovereign Lord, George the Third, King of Great Britain, 
France, and Ireland." 

" In ancient times the sacred plough employed 
The kings and awful fathers of mankind, 
And some, with whom compared, poor insect tribes 
Are but the beings of a summer's day, 
Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm 
Of mighty war ; then, with unwearied hand, 
Disdaining little delicacies, seized 
The plough, and greatly independent lived." 

His grave was unmarked until 1832, when the Masonic Lodge of Greens- 
burg erected a chaste and appropriate monument with the inscription : "The 
earthly remains of Major General Arthur St. Clair are deposited beneath 
this humble monument, which is erected to supply the place of a nobler one 
due from his country." 

Ludwick is an extensive freight station adjoining Greensburg, and 
being the forwarding and receiving point for that town and the surrounding 
country, an extensive business is done here. The Company have erected 
a large brick warehouse, an engine house, wood and water station, &c. A 
town has been laid out as an extension of Greensburg, by William A. 
Stokes, the able solicitor of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and 
contains already a considerable population, which is rapidly increasing. 

Grapeville is also a station of the second class, and is one mile north 
of the village of that name on the Pittsburg turnpike. 

Manor is situated in the midst of a large body of very rich land selected 
by the Penns and reserved as their private property. They had many 
such tracts of land. Pittsburg is built on one of them. The most cele- 
brated, perhaps, was Pennsbury, in Bucks County, which William Penn 
improved for his own residence, and where he hoped in peace and plenty to 
end his days. " Let my children," said he, " be husbandmen and house- 
wives. This leads to consider the works of God and nature, and diverts 
the mind from being taken up with the vain arts and inventions of a 
luxurious world. Of cities and towns, of concourse beware. The world is 
apt to stick close to those who have lived and got wealth there. A country 
life and estate I like best for my children." 

These proprietary manors form a curious feature in the history of Penn- 
sylvania land titles. In 1779, the legislature vested in the Commonwealth 
the rights which the Penns derived from the charter of Charles II. to 
William Penn, declaring that the claims of the proprietaries to the whole 
of the soil contained within the bounds of the charter could not longer con- 
sist with the safety, liberty, and happiness of the people ; that, as the safety 
and happiness of the people is the fundamental law of society, and it had 



30 

been the practice and usage of States most celebrated for freedom and 
wisdom, to control and abolish all claims of power and interest inconsistent 
with their safety and welfare, and it being the right and duty of the repre- 
sentatives of the people to assume the direction and management of such 
interest and property as belongs to the community, or was designed for their 
advantage ; that it had become necessary that speedy and effectual measures 
should be taken in the premises, on account of the great expense of the 
war of the revolution then going on, and the rapid progress of neighboring 
States in locating and settling lands heretofore uncultivated, by which 
multitudes of inhabitants were daily emigrating from this State. These were 
unanswerable reasons for abolishing rights and powers which were of a 
political, rather than private nature, and which were utterly inconsistent with 
the new position of Pennsylvania as a sovereign State. But, with strict 
regard for justice, this same law provided that all the private estates, lands 
&c, of any of the proprietaries whereof they were then possessed, or to 
which they were then entitled in their private several right and capacity, 
and all the lands known as proprietary manors, should be confirmed, 
ratified and established. 

Thus stood the title to this Manor and the many others selected by the 
Penns throughout the State ; and although succeeding generations of the 
family have sold the most of these tracts, large and valuable bodies of land 
still remain which belong to them. .He who seeks to purchase good land 
may very safely rely on the judgment of Penn and his agents, and gene- 
rally feel quite safe if he can obtain a farm which is in one of the manors. 
The title to these lands never having been in the Commonwealth gives rise 
to some curious questions as to the power of the State to control them. 
But these discussions, now of little practical account, can hardly be con- 
sidered within the legitimate range of railroad reading. 

Irwin's is a very extensive business point. In addition to the local trade 
of the rich surrounding country, the Coal Grove coal works, the t property of 
Coleman & Co., of Pittsburg, are located here. The shipment of coal will 
exceed thirty thousand tons this year, and is rapidly increasing. It is of 
unsurpassed and rarely equalled quality. It is used in the gas works of 
Philadelphia, New York, and Brooklyn, and is considered fully equal, if not 
superior, to any of the foreign coals. A town is laid out here which already 
contains three hundred inhabitants. Roads communicate north and south 
from this point. 

Larimers, 20 miles from Pittsburg, is also the centre of extensive coal 
operations, the works of the Westmorland Coal Co. being located here. The 
vein is the same as at Irvine's, and of most excellent quality. The opera- 
tions of this coal company, although already approaching twenty thousand 
tons per annum, are still but partial and imperfect, and the quantity which 
is demanded for eastern supply is so large, that there is scarcely a limit to 
the extent of the business which will be done. 



31 

Stewart's. At this place there is a handsome freight and passenger 
station. 

Wall's Station is a depot for wood and water of the second class. 

Turtle Creek, 12 miles from Pittsburg, is also a small station at the 
intersection of the Greensburg and Pittsburg turnpike. 

Brinton's. At this point the road crosses Turtle Creek and intersects 
the Plank Road to Pittsburg. It is the place of departure for passengers by 
the Monongahela and Yougkiogheny Slack Water, which extends from Pitts- 
burg to Brownsville and West Newton. The Connelsville Railroad will 
connect here with the Pennsylvania Railroad. From this and the inter- 
mediate stations to Pittsburg, there are numerous trains which afford great 
facility to persons living near the road and engaged in business in Pittsburg. 
Here and at Braddock's Fields and other points in the neighborhood, coal 
mines and lime quarries are being opened, and an extensive business in 
these articles is already transacted with Pittsburg. 

Braddock's Field is the battle ground on which Gen. Braddock was 
totally defeated by the French and Indians on the 9th July, 1755. At 
an early day in the history of this country, the French, ascending from the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and descending from Canada, had penetrated the 
west in various directions, and had made many settlements, still indicated by 
their names, as Vincennes, Vandalia, St. Louis, &c. Among these was 
Fort du Quesne, on the point at the junction of the Monongahela and 
Alleghany Rivers, on the ground now occupied by the freight depot of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, appropriately named "Du Quesne Depot." In 
June, 1775, while the war was raging which made the noblest of modern 
orators, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the greatest of English ministers, 
which carried British arms in triumph by sea and land around the circumfer- 
ence of the globe, and first taught the American colonists their growing 
power, an army composed of British regulars and Provincial militia 
marched, under command of Gen. Braddock, from Cumberland to attack 
the French in the western wilderness. Pitt, the orator, sent out this ex- 
pedition. Franklin, the philosopher, furnished the means of transporta- 
tion. Washington, the patriot, accompanied it. Does history record any 
event which united in a common enterprise men such as these three ? 

Slowly, with difficulty, encumbered with baggage, still more encumbered 
by military formulas unsuited to the warfare of the woods, this army pro- 
ceeded westward, and on the 9 th July, crossed to the right bank of the 
Monongahela at a ripple about a mile below the mouth of Turtle Creek, 
and within ten miles of Fort du Quesne. 

If the traveller will look to the left soon after passing Brinton's Station, 
he will see the pool made by a dam across the river. This is the spot where 
the army crossed. Ascending from the river, he will perceive for some dis- 
tance an alluvial bottom, interspersed with ravines of various extent. These 
increase in number and depth as you approach and ascend the bank above 



32 

the railroad. In these ravines the enemy (completely concealed by the 
dense forest) was posted. The British forces, "in all the pomp and circum- 
stance of glorious war/' crossed the river, marched through the level ground, 
and, as the advance guard approached the hills, a heavy and quick fire was 
opened upon them by their concealed enemy. 

Col. Washington wrote to his mother from Fort Cumberland, 18th 
July, 1755, nine days after the battle : " When we came there, we were at- 
tacked by a party of French and Indians, whose number I am persuaded 
did not exceed three hundred men, while ours consisted of about one thou- 
sand three hundred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who were 
struck with such a panic that they behaved with more cowardice than it is 
possible to conceive. The officers behaved gallantly in order to encourage 
their men, for which they suffered greatly, there being nearly seventy killed 
and wounded — a large proportion of the number we had. The Virginia 
troops showed a good deal of bravery, and were nearly all killed ; for I be- 
lieve out of three companies that were there, scarcely thirty men are left 
alive. Capt. Peyrouny and all his officers, down to a corporal, were killed. 
Capt. Poison had nearly as hard a fate, for only one of his was left. In 
short, the dastardly behaviour of those they call regulars, exposed all others 
that were inclined to do their duty, to almost certain death ; and, at last, in 
despite of all the efforts of the officers to the contrary, they ran, as sheep 
pursued by dogs, and it was impossible to rally them. The general was 
wounded, of which he died three days after. Sir Peter Halkett was killed 
in the field, where died many other brave officers. I luckily escaped with- 
out a wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses 
shot under me. Captains Orne and Morris, two of the aides-de-camp, were 
wounded early in the engagement, which rendered the duty harder upon 
me, as I was the only person then left to distribute the general's orders; 
which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half recovered from a violent 
illness that had confined me to my bed and a wagon for above ten days. 
I am still in a weak and feeble condition, which induces me to halt here 
two or three days, in the hope of recovering a little strength, to enable me 
to proceed homewards." And to his brother John he writes at the same 
time: "As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a circumstantial 
account of my death and dying speech, I take this early opportunity of 
contradicting the first, and of assuring you that I have not yet composed the 
latter. But, by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been 
protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bul- 
lets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt ; 
although death was levelling my companions on every side of me." 

It appears that Washington's estimate of the numbers of the enemy was 
underrated. Mr. Sparks ascertained in Paris that there were eight hundred 
and fifty, of whom two-thirds were Indians. 

To show the difficulty and uncertainty of communication in those days, 



83 

as compared with these, when thirteen hours take the traveller from Brad- 
dock's Field to Philadelphia, the following letter received by the Provincial 
Council on the 23d July, fourteen days after the battle, is inserted. It is 
curious also for the simplicity of primitive days which it discloses : — 

" Sir: I thought it proper to let you know that I was in the battle where 
we were defeated ; and we had about eleven hundred and fifty private men 
besides officers and others, and we were attacked the 9th day about twelve 
o'clock, and held till about three in the afternoon, and then we were forced 
to retreat, when I suppose we might bring about three hundred whole men 
besides a vast many wounded; most of our officers were either wounded or 
killed ; General Braddock is wounded, but I hope not mortal, aud Sir 
John St. Claire and many others, but I hope not mortal. All the train is 
cut off in a manner. Sir Peter Halkett and his son, Captain Poison, Captain 
G-ethen, Captain Rose, Captain Tatten, killed, and many others; Capt Ord, 
of the train, is wounded, but I hope not mortal. We lost all our artillery 
entirely, and everything else. 

" To Mr. John Smith and Buchannon, and give it to the next Post, and 
let him shew this to George Gibson, in Lancaster^ and Mr. Bingham, at the 
sign of the ship, and you'll oblige, 

Yours to command, 

JOHN CAMPBELL, 

Messenger. 

" P S. And from that to be told at the Indian King. 

"N. B. The above is directed to Mr. Smith and Buchannon, in Carlisle." 

That this catastrophe was the result of the presumptuous confidence of 
the English officers, there can be no doubt. This stubborn Anglo-Saxon 
spirit, which despises danger, and sometimes makes courage rashness, is still 
unchanged, and has been recently shown by Lord Cardigan in the Crimea, 
as it was one hundred years ago by Gen. Braddock on the Monongahela. 

Swissvale. A neat village has been laid out here by Mr. Svvisshelm, 
and the beauty of the location along the entire line of the road, from Turtle 
Creek to Pittsburg, has attracted many persons from the latter place, who 
have erected residences which adorn the road and the bank of the Monon- 
gahela, and give to this region a refined and cultivated society. 

Wjlkinsburg, at the crossing of the Greensburg turnpike, contains 
about four hundred inhabitants, and is gradually improving. Here is a neat 
passenger station. 

Homewood is called after the seat of the Hon. William Wilkins, which 
is about a mile distant, and is an extensive and romantic place, highly culti- 
vated, adorned with a beautiful residence, fit for the home of the dis- 
tinguished and venerable statesman, whose genius has honored his country 
abroad, and reflects lustre on his native State. 
3 



34 

East Liberty is a thriving and rapidly increasing village. Many of 
the merchants of Pittsburg have elegant residences near this place. The 
station house is a fine specimen of old English architecture. 

Millvale is near the residence of the late Hon. Harmer Denny, a dis- 
tinguished citizen of "Western Pennsylvania. Immediately adjoining the 
extensive estate of the Dennys, is the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, a 
noble pile of building, erected chiefly by the generosity of the people of 
Pittsburg on ground given by the O'Haras and Dennys. 

We now enter the Outer Depot of the Railroad, which consists of about 
twenty acres, bounded by Liberty, Morton, Ferguson, and Lumber Streets. 
There are seventeen parallel tracks, making an entire length of nearly sis 
miles within the Company's grounds. Here is a locomotive and car-repair 
shop, altogether two hundred and forty feet long by two hundred and 
twenty feet. Blacksmith shop, tinner's, painter's, carpenter's, trimming 
shops, store houses, offices, wood houses, coal sheds, water stations, cattle 
yards, weigh scales and offices, local freight house, three hundred feet long 
by seventy-five feet wide, with offices attached ; iron and lumber yards, and 
a circular engine house, one of the largest in America, nine hundred feet 
in circumference, containing stalls for forty-four locomotive engines and 
tenders. 

These buildings are mostly of brick, built in a substantial manner, and 
with considerable architectural elegance. The whole property is underdrained 
by brick and stone culverts. The .steam engines and all the extensive 
machinery is of the best quality, and has all the modern improvements. 
An idea of the extent of the operations of a great railroad can probably be 
had more satisfactorily by a visit to this depot, or that at Altoona, than by 
any other mode. The Ninth Ward, in which these works are situated, was 
very sparsely inhabited before the Company located there, but it is now 
rapidly increasing in population, and is one of the busiest and most thriving 
parts of the city. 

Passing through this establishment, we enter Liberty Street, and the speed 
of the train is diminished to about four miles per hour. The anxious pre- 
cautions which are taken in passing through the streets of the city, have 
been so successful that no persons have ever been injured eseept by their own 
gross negligence. This remark, indeed, applies to the entire line of road, 
and it is a remarkable fact that of the hundreds of thousands of persons car- 
ried in the passenger trains on the Pennsylvania Railroad, no one, sitting 
in his proper place, has ever been injured in the slightest degree. 

Accidents have resulted from standing on the platforms, from attempting 
to get on or off the cars when in motion, and from other irregularities of 
similar kind ; but conformity to the rules of the Company, which are made 
for the safety and comfort of passengers, is practically equivalent to abso- 
lute assurance of security. 

At Grant Street, we enter the passenger station by a curve to the left from 



So 

Liberty Street. This depot occupies a lot of ground fronting on Seventh, 
Liberty, and Grant Streets, five hundred feet in length by one hundred and 
twenty feet in width. The arrangements of the Company with the Excel- 
sior Omnibus Line, relieves passengers from all risk and trouble as to them- 
selves or their baggage. Before the cars reach Pittsburg, an agent passes 
through them, collects all baggage checks, and ascertains where the re- 
spective articles are to be delivered. He gives a check receipt for the bag- 
gage, and the passenger finds it safely delivered soon after his arrival. , At 
the depot numerous omnibuses are in waiting on the arrival of the trains, 
and passengers are immediately carried to any part of the city where they 
may wish to go. 

Opposite the passenger station the Company owns a lot of ground on the 
canal, Liberty, and Seventh Streets, about eight hundred feet in length by 
one hundred and fifty feet in width, on which a local freight depot is to be 
erected for the exclusive accommodation and convenience of the merchants 
and citizens of Pittsburg. 

The railroad continues its course down Liberty Street to Marbury, when 
it enters the through-freight depot, a new and beautiful brick building, 
nearly seven hundred feet in length on Liberty Street, by one hundred and 
ten feet in width, and extending from Marbury Street to the Monongahela 
River. This is, like the outer depot, one of the sights of Pittsburg, and 
well worthy of a visit by persons who take an interest in the improved 
modes of transport and communication with which modern science and en- 
terprise have amazed the world. Large as this building is, it will hardly be 
sufficient for the rapidly increasing business of the road, which, for the past 
year, was about 250,000 tons, and will probably, when the road is fully 
completed, and its advantages are thoroughly appreciated, amount to a gross 
tonnage of a million of tons per annum. 

Pixtsburg, located in the triangle formed by the union of the Monon- 
gahela and Alleghany, which make the Ohio River, is the second city of 
Pennsylvania. It contains, with Alleghany and the environs, a population 
exceeding one hundred thousand, almost all of whom are engaged in or 
connected with industrial pursuits, and chiefly in the various branches of 
manufacturing, for which the location of the city is peculiarly favorable. 

Nearly a century ago, General Washington, then a young man, standing 
in the forest at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela, predicted 
the fortunate destiny of what is now Pittsburg. He foresaw that the wild- 
ness of savage life would vanish at the advance of certain civilization, and 
that the opulence of commerce, and the refinements of intelligence would 
succeed the wretchedness of the original settlers, and the barbarism of the 
aborigines. But Washington also clearly perceived the necessity for the 
development of the natural resources of this favored spot by an artificial 
channel of communication with the east, and he was the original projector 
of a road to connect the waters of the Ohio with the Chesapeake Bay — the 



36 

parent project of all the improvements to unite the east with the west, 
which have since been executed. 

In 1784, Washington wrote to Governor Harrison, of Virginia, in refer- 
ence to the trade of the west, and the competition even then springing up 
for its enjoyment: "A people who are possessed of a spirit of commerce; 
who see and will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost anything. 
In the meantime, under the uncertainty of these undertakings, they are 
smoothing the roads and paving the way for the trade of the western world. 
That New York will do the same, no person who knows the temper, genius 
and policy of these people can harbor the smallest doubt." 

After this far-seeing exposition of our true policy, and the accurate esti- 
mate of our northern neighbors, General Washington proceeds : " Common 
policy, therefore, points clearly and strongly to the propriety of our enjoying 
all the advantages which nature and our local situation afford us; and 
clearly evinces that unless this spirit could be totally eradicated in other 
States as well as this, and every man be made to become a cultivator of the 
land, or a manufacturer of such articles as are prompted by necessity, such 
stimulus should be employed as will force this spirit, by showing to our 
countrymen the superior advantages we possess beyond others, and the im- 
portance of being on an equal footing with our neighbors." Although not 
directed to the particular part of the country through which we have passed, 
the circumstances are so similar, that every word thus written by Washington 
is full of instruction; and is, indeed, "the wisdom which, put in action, has 
given Pennsylvania a great work, of which her people may well be proud. 
Pittsburg is beautifully and most favorably situated. On the north flow 
the clear and sparkling waters of the Alleghany, which is formed by the 
union of several streams, some of which rise in the north of Pennsylvania, 
others in the southwestern part of New York. After crossing the State 
line, it receives successively the waters of French Creek, Clarion, Red Bank, 
and Kiskiminetas Rivers. The Monongahela, on the other side of Pittsburg, 
offers a striking contrast to the Alleghany. It is said that its name is a 
combination of Indian words meaning "river without an island," and such, 
with very unimportant exceptions, is the fact in regard to it. Its chief 
tributary is the Youghiogheuy River. Its waters are turbid, and flow with 
smooth and gentle current through a fertile and beautiful country from its 
sources in Virginia to its mouth, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. 
The trade of these rivers is very considerable. Steamboats run up the 
Alleghany to Freeport, Kittahning, Franklin, and Warren. Its descending 
current brings down numerous and enormous rafts, which supply theJarger 
part of all the pine timber, boards, and shingles used in the valley of the 
Mississippi from Pittsburg to New Orleans. Five hundred large flatboats 
or arks come down the Alleghany annually, loaded with corn, salt, lumber 
or produce, pot and pearlashes, whiskey, cheese, cabinet ware, tubs, buckets, 
&c, hay, cats, potatoes, hoop-poles, bark, &c. The traffic on the Mononga- 



37 

hela is also important. Dams have been erected which make it navigable 
above Brownswille and Youghiogeny to West Newton. Many hundred 
large flatboats and steamboats run daily on these streams loaded with coal, 
and numerous other craft with produce, descend these rivers to Pittsburg, 
which in return supplies them with dry goods, groceries, iron ware, &c. 
Of the Ohio, nearly one thousand miles in length, "the beautiful river," as 
its early explorers, the French, called it, it is needless to say more than that 
it has the enormous commerce which belongs to one of the greatest natural 
highways in the world. It has but one impediment, the low water of the 
summer which sometimes suspends navigation for several months, creating 
great losses, and often involving much suffering. This is a difficulty which 
those competent to judge say can be obviated at moderate expense. 

This river, running through part of Pennsylvania, the boundary of the 
great States of Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, the chan- 
nel by which supplies of the most necessary importance reach besides these, 
the vast and numerous States bordering on the Mississippi River, or pene- 
trated by its tributaries, is of national character in the highest sense. No 
one State can control it. In all that relates to it, the larger portion of the 
entire republic is concerned. And it is to be expected that before long the 
demand of the west and southwest for the efficient improvement of this their 
great national highway, will be so energetic and unanimous, as to secure 
what is so important to the interest and comfort of the many millions of 
people who inhabit the valley of the Mississippi. 

Thus situated, it is not surprising that Pittsburg should be intimately 
connected with the navigation of the western rivers. The first steamboat 
on these waters was built here in 1811. Upwards of one hundred are now 
owned here — many are built every year, and among them are some of ex- 
traordinary speed and splendor. Especially is the line of packets which 
leave daily for Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, remarkable for punctu- 
ality, comfort, and safety, and it may well be doubted whether, considering 
their splendid saloons, spacious state-rooms, elegant table, excellent attend- 
ance, and motion smooth, rapid, and safe, more convenience for comfortable 
travelling can be found anywhere than in these packets. 

More rapid communication may be found for those going west by the 
Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, which connects with the Pennsylvania 
Road, and by which all the important points in the west may be speedily 
reached. Starting from the depot, you may by this or connecting roads, 
reach Cleveland, Sandusky, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, 
Chicago, St. Louis, &c. 

The railroad now being constructed from Pittsburg to Connellsville, 
thence to Cumberland, to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad — 
that to Steubenville, which will connect with the Indiana Road, and give a 
direct communication on a road of the same gauge as the Pennsylvania, 
through the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois— that to Erie connecting 



38 

with the Northern Ohio, Michigan, and New York roads. The Alleghany 
Valley Railroad, extending from Pittsburg north, and to the State line, and 
joining the New York and Erie road, the Chartier's Valley road to Wash- 
ington, will make Pittsburg a great artificial centre of railroad communica- 
tion, as nature has made it the chief radiating point of western-waters inter- 
course. 

The manufactories of this city are most interesting, and among these are 
the, cotton factories, iron foundries, steam-engine manufactories, rolling- 
mills, bar and rod-iron manufactories, those of nails, glass works, steel and 
brass, steam flouring-mills, steam saw-mills, rope walks, oil cloth manufac- 
tory, extensive smithshops, plough, carriage, and wagon manufactories, 
shovel, spade, and fork manufactories, those for locks and small iron articles 
of various sorts, establishments for boat building, and for the manufacture 
of articles of leather, hats, caps, saddlery, paper furniture, and almost all 
articles either for use or ornament. The coal mines on the Monongahela 
side, with the railroads and other apparatus for bringing the coal to the 
river, and loading it, are curious. 

The public buildings of Pittsburg, of chief importance, are the Court- 
house and the Penitentiary ; in Alleghany, the Custom-house and Post-office, 
the New Market Houses, Masonic Hall, the Catholic Cathedral, St. Peter's 
Episcopal Church, the First and Third Presbyterian Churches, and the Mo- 
nongahela House. The numerous bridges over the Alleghany, and the beau- 
tiful wire suspension bridge over the "Monongahela, are well worthy of ex- 
amination. 

In this brief and imperfect sketch we have barely named some of the 
objects of interest in this city. It is impossible, within the limits of this 
little book to do more. We have not even named the twin sister city of 
Alleghany, with her twenty-five thousand inhabitants, nor Manchester, Bir- 
mingham, Lawrenceville, &c, all contiguous to and for all practical por- 
poses part of Pittsburg, and all likely soon to be consolidated into one mu- 
nicipal corporation. 

And so, courteous traveller, having accompanied you from Philadelphia 
to Pittsburg, and pointed out what seemed likely to interest you on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, we bid you farewell. 

The following lines, written by Dr. Darwin more than half a century ago, 
are now partly realized. The other part, though beautiful poetry, is a mere 
flight of imagination. 

" Soon shall thy arm, itnconquered steam! afar 
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car : 
Or, on wide waving wings expanded bear 
The flying chariot through the fields of air. 
Fair crews triumphant leaning from above, 
Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move, 
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd, 
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud." 



39 

The Pennsylvania Railroad is a very important link in the chain which 
binds, by a direct connection, the eastern or Atlantic cities "with those situ- 
ated on the Ohio and Mississippi. Taking Boston and New York as points 
of departure for the west, say for Cincinnati, as a central point, the traveller 
saves in distance, in time, and in expense, one day's journey by this road. 
If he wish to approach any city in the west by a direct line from these 
points, he must go through the territory of Pennsylvania. He can travel, 
it is true, by the New York and Erie, and by the Central, but these are 
circuitous routes to the west. Their direction is to the Lakes, and lie on a 
circumference line, while the Pennsylvania Railroad is on a diameter line. 
As soon as it was ascertained that the Alleghany Mountain could be passed 
on a direct route to Pittsburg, without an inclined plane, the citizens of 
Pennsylvania, and particularly those of Philadelphia, determined that such 
a railroad should be made. In 1838 the first survey was made by Wm. E. 
Morris, an engineer. In 1841 Charles L. Schlatter was appointed by the 
Board of Canal Commissioners, to make a full survey for a railway from 
Harrisburg to Pittsburg. The first meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia, 
in relation to building the road, was held at the Chinese Museum, on the 
10th December, 1845. It was an unusually large meeting, at which a de- 
termined spirit was manifested to prosecute this great work. Thomas P. 
Cope was called to the chair. A preamble and resolutions urging the im- 
portance of the work, were offered' by Wm. M. Meredith, and unanimously 
adopted. A large committee on memorials to the Legislature, praying for 
an act of incorporation, and a committee of nine to prepare and publish an 
address to the citizens of Pennsylvania, setting forth the views and objects 
of the meeting, were appointed. The latter consisted of the following per- 
sons : George W. Toland, Thomas M. Petit, Henry Welsh, Isaac Hazle- 
hurst, John M. Atwood, Robert Allen, George N. Baker, Thomas C Rock- 
hill, and George M. Stroud. 

On the 13th of April, 1846, a law was obtained to incorporate the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company, As soon as the act was passed, a large town 
meeting was called in Philadelphia, for the purpose of taking measures to 
bring the corporation into existence. At this meeting a resolution was 
adopted for the appointment of a committee to prepare an address to the 
citizens, urging the measure. On this committee the following named gen- 
tlemen were appointed by the chairman, Thomas P. Cope, viz : Job R. 
Tyson, David S. Brown, John Grigg, Thomas Sparks, George N. Baker, 
Richard D. Wood and James Magee. This committee prepared an address 
which was issued in pamphlet form, and was extensively published in the 
newspapers. It was understood to be from the pen of its chairman, Job 
R. Tyson. It met with a warm response from the citizens. Private and 
corporate subscriptions were soon obtained, particularly one from the city, 
of two and a half millions of dollars. This subscription gave an impulse to 



40 

the enterprise that left no longer any doubt about its success. The first 
Board of Directors consisted of the following gentlemen, most of whom had 
been active in promoting this great work, viz : S. V. Merrick, Thomas P. 
Cope, Robert Toland, David S. Brown, James Magee, Richard D. Wood, 
Stephen Colwell, George W. Carpenter, Christian E. Spangler, Thomas T. 
Lea, William C. Patterson, John A. Wright, and Henry C. Corbit. First 
officers — S. V. Merrick, President; Oliver Fuller, Secretary; George V. 
Bacon, Treasurer; J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer; William B. Fos- 
ter, Jun., Associate Engineer, of the Eastern Division ; Edward Miller, of 
the Western. 

Although the cost of the Pennsylvania Railroad is great, the capacity of 
it is great also, and capable of producing a large remunerating net income. 
It is calculated that the tonnage of the road, when completed with double 
track, can be increased to a million of tons per annum, independent of the 
passenger business. This amount of tonnage, with the passenger business, 
will require 300 engines of 200 horse-power each. Allowing two-thirds 
of the engines to be in daily use, the quantity of water consumed by them 
per day would be 1,200,000 gallons, which is nearly one-third of the 
amount consumed daily by the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia. 
The conversion of this enormous amount of water into steam would require 
810 tons of coal, or 2,000 cords of wood per day- The chopping, hauling, 
and preparing this amount of wood would give employment to 8,000 labor- 
ers. The number of eight-wheeled cars which would be required to accom- 
modate one million of tons per annum, carried over the whole road at a 
speed of ten miles per hour, would be 4,500. The total number of em- 
ployees of every description required, would not be less than 4,050. The 
income of the road, thus equipped, and transacting such a business, would 
be, at low rates, $5,000,000. The population supported by such a business 
directly and incidentally, may be estimated at 50,000 persons, not including 
those supported by dividends on capital, or in the preparation of iron, lum- 
ber, and other materials, which would swell the aggregate to perhaps 
100,000 persons. 



Any person who may detect an error either in the book or map, or 
who may desire to have any alteration or addition, or who may be possessed 
of any interesting information respecting any place through which the road 
passes, would confer a favor by communicating the same to the Secretary 
of the Company, Edmund Smith, before the issuing of a second edition. 







itiillftitiii 






T 


<S M 


« 






6 



